DC’s Titans TV Show Casts More Names!!

Jake Michaels has been cast as Doom Patrol's Cliff Steele, a.k.a. Robotman, for DC's live-action Titans show, according to ComicBook. Michaels is reportedly slated to guest star in one sole episode, but there is the option for him to return as a recurring character.

Other Doom Patrol charcters including Chief Caulder and Elasti-Girl were previously cast for Titans. If this Robotman casting is confirmed, it would be three of the four founding Doom Patrol members from comics - with only Negative Man remaining.

Michaels has had one-off roles in various shows including Condor, Designated Survivor, Saving Hope and Conviction.

No debut date for Titans has been set.

DC’s upcoming Titans live-action series has expanded the ranks of its Doom Patrol with the casting Dwain Murphy as founding member Negative Man.



Introduced in 1963 in DC Comics’ My Greatest Adventure #80, the original Negative Man was Larry Trainor, a U.S. Air Force test pilot who was exposed to a radioactive field while flying an experimental jet. As a result, he’s imbued with a strange power that enables him to discharge energy from this body in the form of a shadowy silhouette referred to as the Negative Man, or the Negative Spirit, which can fly, pass through solid material, and cause objects to explode.



Dwain Murphy



The official character description provided to Den of Geek suggests Titans will stick to that origin, right down to the bandages Trainor wraps himself in to protect those around him.



RELATED: Doom Patrol Confirms For DC’s Titans TV Series



Murphy (Star Trek: Discovery, The Strain) joins a live-action Doom Patrol that so far includes Bruno Bichir as Dr. Niles Caulder, aka, The Chief, April Bowlby as Elasti-Girl and Jake Michaels as Cliff “Robotman” Steele. The team will debut in the fifth episode of Titans, targeted to launch later this year on Warner Bros.’ new DC Comics-branded streaming platform.



Titans stars tar Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson, Anna Diop as Starfire, Teagan Croft as Raven, Ryan Potter as Beast Boy, Alan Ritchson as Hawk, Minka Kelly as Dove and Lindsey Gort as Amy Rohrbach.

Original series. Vintage classics. Plus all your current favourites. Under one roof?

Watch out, Netflix... DC's coming for you.



In April 2017, the comics giant announced plans to launch its own streaming service, one which it promised would deliver an "immersive experience" designed just for DC fans.



(Disney, which owns DC's rival Marvel, is plotting something similar, though that's another story.)



The plan is for this new digital service to gather a large backlog of past DC television shows and brand-new material exclusive to the service – something similar to Netflix's original series and movies.



Here's everything we know about the service so far – and a look at why it could dramatically change the state of play for all of DC's TV output.



DC streaming service name: What's it called?

The actual name of the service is yet to be confirmed, which means we'll slightly awkwardly be referring to it simply as "DC's streaming service" for the time being.



DC streaming service shows: What will be available to watch online?

The big question... and it's a long answer.



Though the full catalogue is yet to be announced, it's expected to include as many animated and live-action shows (and possibly movies) as DC can possibly assemble in one place.



Like Netflix, the service will make a heavy push into original and exclusive content, beginning with...



TITANS



Alan Ritchson and Minka Kelly as Hawk and Dove in DC's Titans

© DC ENTERTAINMENT

Previously trapped in development hell at cable network TNT, Titans – based on the many and various Teen Titans series that DC has published since the 1960s – follows a group of young superheroes recruited from every corner of the DC Universe.



Dick Grayson / Robin (Brenton Thwaites) "emerges from the shadows" to become the leader of a fearless band of new heroes, including Starfire (Anna Diop), Raven (Teagan Croft), Beast Boy (Ryan Potter) and many others.



Alan Ritchson and Minka Kelly were later cast in the recurring roles of superhero duo Hawk and Dove. Ritchson has DC previous, having played Arthur Curry / Aquaman in four episodes of Smallville between 2005 and 2010.



Carrie Diaries actress Lindsey Gort will also recur as Detective Amy Rohrbach, with Castle's Seamus Dever cast in an undisclosed role. Titans will be written by Akiva Goldsman (Star Trek: Discovery).



YOUNG JUSTICE: OUTSIDERS



'Young Justice'

© CARTOON NETWORK

Warner Bros. Animation is also reviving the popular animated series Young Justice, which aired its last episode on Cartoon Network in 2013, with "passionate fan support" setting the stage for a third season, subtitled Outsiders.



In the new episodes, the team (Nightwing, Kid Flash, Superboy, Miss Martin and more) faces its greatest challenge yet as it takes on meta-human trafficking and the terrifying threat it creates for a society caught in the crossfire of a genetic arms race spanning the globe and the galaxy.



HARLEY QUINN ANIMATED SERIES



Harley and Ivy

© FOX WARNER BROS

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The newest addition to the roster, announced in November 2017, is an adult-oriented animated series focusing on Harley Quinn.



Margot Robbie's performance as Harley in 2016's Suicide Squad was one of that misfire's few redeeming features, and she has been approached to lend her voice to the series, though is yet to officially sign up.



Twenty-six half-hour episodes featuring both Harley and her BFF Poison Ivy will follow our anti-heroine as she breaks away from The Joker to define her own identity as the most successful crook in Gotham City.



Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker and Dean Lorey, of short-lived DC live-action comedy Powerless, scored the series commission with their pilot pitch.



WHAT ABOUT THE FLASH, SUPERGIRL AND THE OTHER CW SHOWS?



Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash and DC's Legends of Tomorrow crossover, Crisis on Earth-X: White Canary, Supergirl, Alex Danvers, Green Arrow, The Flash, Felicity Smoak and Cisco Ramon

© THE CW

Here's where things start to get a bit sticky. In 2016, The CW network – home to the various Arrowverse series – announced a "multi-year" deal that allows Netflix to remain the exclusive US subscription television service for previous seasons of scripted series broadcast on The CW.



The wording on the announcement was fuzzy, never clarifying exactly how long the deal will remain in place. But until it expires, don't expect to see old episodes of Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow et al on DC's streaming service.



It's entirely possible they could join the service at a later date though, along with series like FOX's Gotham and AMC's Preacher, rights issues permitting.



The animated shows currently hosted on CW Seed, the network's free online service, could also potentially shift to the new service – so that's Vixen and the upcoming Constantine cartoon.



WHICH OLD SHOWS MIGHT APPEAR ON THE SERVICE?



'Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'

© BOB D'AMICO/ABC VIA GETTY IMAGES

Though we've yet to get any official confirmation of which titles could feature on the series, the promise of vintage material means everything from Batman '66 to Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, to the first Flash series with John Wesley Shipp, to Smallville could be up for grabs.



Then of course there's the long list of animated series which DC will be eyeing: everything from Super Friends to Static Shock to the iconic Batman: The Animated Series.



CW Seed also currently distributes DC's animated movies, like Flashpoint Paradox and Justice League: Doom, which, like the animated original series, could potentially move to the new service.



Imagine... all that lot, under one roof. You'd be set for months. Years, even.



DC streaming service date: When will it launch?

The original announcement confirmed that DC's streaming service will launch sometime in 2018, with Young Justice writer Greg Weisman later predicting a "fourth quarter" premiere for the new season.



Assuming that Young Justice: Outsiders will be available on the service from launch, we can surmise that the service will go live in October at the earliest.



DC streaming service cost: How much will I have to pay?

The million dollar question. (Well, hopefully not that much.)



Again, DC is yet to officially confirm pricing for its streaming service. It's possible though that, like Netflix, it'll offer several different packages at different prices.



Maybe a base plan, with streaming only, for around $7-9 a month? And a more extensive package, with access to more material, including digital comics, for closer to $10-15? We'll learn more about potential pricing, of course, as more of the service's launch catalogue is confirmed.

DC has maintained a reasonably steady vice grip on the small screen world over the course of the last few years with shows like Arrow and The Flash, but that's about to get taken to the next level. That's right; I am talking about the highly-anticipated DC streaming service, which will incorporate an entire wave of original content inspired by your favorite superheroes onto the web. With that in mind, we have compiled a list of TV projects that we think would be perfect for this exciting platform. There are plenty of possibilities to address, so let's get started by heading over to the Flashpoint universe.

Flashpoint

Flashpoint has experienced a significant boom over the course of the last few years due to its presence on The Flash and the announcement of a Flashpoint movie. However, one essential element to most Flashpoint stories is that they involve Barry Allen trying to get away from that universe. That's not what we want to see in our Flashpoint show. Instead, we want to see an adaptation of The World of Flashpoint run of comics, which essentially treats the Flashpoint universe as a standalone version of the DC lore. Instead of following Flash as he tries to escape the hellish world, this version of the story would simply tell the tales of the characters who inhabit this universe and know no other world. From Thomas Wayne's Batman to pirate Deathstroke, there are decades worth of stories to siphon from the world of Flashpoint.

Gotham Central

Some fans might be quick to draw comparisons between Gotham Central and Gotham on Fox, but the ideas are fundamentally different because Gotham Central takes place in a world where Batman and all of his rogue already exist, and Gotham is a prequel. At its core, the beauty of a story like Gotham Central is that we get to see the adventures of Batman from an outsider's point of view, which is something the movies and TV shows only do in passing. What do the average beat cops really think of Batman? How is he perceived by the ones who have only seen him in passing? What happens when Batman has to fight a supervillain, and something comparatively smaller (but still deadly) goes down? That's Gotham Central's bread and butter, and it's tailor-made for a streaming series.

Fables

What would happen if stories from fairy tale, myth, and legend were all real? Now, what if all of the characters from those stories existed in the modern world and had to inhabit modern-day archetypes? That's the question posed by Fables (the gamers amongst you might also know this universe as The Wolf Among Us), and it's one of the most interesting concepts ever committed to the page. The story creates a fantastically rich ecosystem in which the main character (a reformed take on The Big Bad Wolf) must keep the peace among a wide range of factions, heroes, and villains, and the sheer amount of public domain icons available in this universe makes it ripe for long-term storytelling. Beyond that, the entire Fables world is incredibly gritty, which means it doesn't require the creation of a fairytale landscape to work.

The Fourth World

Among DC fans, it's no secret that Jack Kirby is god. That's why we think that it's time for DC to properly celebrate the gods that he created: specifically, the New Gods. Jack Kirby's Fourth World comics are some of the most groundbreaking in the history of the entire medium, and they helped establish characters that would eventually go on to become mainstays of the cosmic DC universe like Darkseid and Steppenwolf. We have seen elements of these stories used in DC animated movies, TV shows, and even recent movies like Justice League. However, we've never seen a full-blown adaptation of these stories in a way that feels insulated from the rest of the DC universe. With DC finally going all in on a streaming service of its very own, there has never been a better time for the comic giant to embrace the Fourth World.

Booster/Beetle

A streaming service is a great place to put characters who have widespread name recognition among die-hard fans, but might not be entirely recognizable to the casual audience. Marvel proved that with heroes like Iron Fist and Luke Cage, and so too could DC do the same with a small screen show teaming Blue Beetle (Ted Kord, specifically) and Booster Gold up in grand fashion. One of the most beloved character pairings in all of comics, a TV show centering on the exploits of these two heroes could play out like an old-fashioned buddy cop story, with Booster and Beetle continually throwing humorous insults and barbs at one another as they work together to fight evil. There's a profound friendship beneath the humor, though, and that's something that could shine in this type of format.

The Question

The world of DC Comics has long been home to an army of great, hard-boiled detectives, but The Question easily stands out as one of the most intriguing of the bunch. Heavily influenced by film noir in his design and in the nature of his stories, Vic Sage (or Renee Montoya, depending on which Question you prefer) is a hero who sees things purely in terms of black and white. He has a strict moral code that guides his approach to crime fighting, and he is arguably most recognizable for the unique mask that makes him appears as if he has no face. Beyond that, he has a longtime romance with Birds of Prey team member, The Huntress, which means that an original series focusing on The Question could actually tie into other DC properties on other platforms.

A Powerless Reboot

When Powerless first hits NBC back in early 2017, it definitely lived up to its name. The DC workplace comedy showed some promise, but it mostly landed with a thud amongst mainstream audiences. While it wasn't necessarily a phenomenal show in the episodes that actually got to air, the idea of a street-level comedy focusing on workers building helpful gadgets at a Wayne Industries office seems like a concept that's worth keeping around. In fact, it's worth wondering if the problem was that Powerless debuted on a traditional broadcast network. If allowed to move to a streaming platform that would likely have fewer content restrictions than the old-fashioned model, then it is entirely possible that Powerless could find new life and become a staple of the small screen DC world.

Batman Beyond Terry McGinnis Bruce Wayne

A Batman Beyond Reboot

Whenever fans talk about the best animated DC series of all time, one of the shows that continually comes up in that conversation is Batman Beyond. Although it only ran for three seasons, the tale of an aging Bruce Wayne mentoring Terry McGinnis (who has become a mainstay in the DC world since the show's cancellation) endeared itself to fans and became one of the most unique Batman properties ever committed to the screen. The show drew heavy influence from Blade Runner and the classic film noir that inspired Blade Runner, and there's likely a large segment of the fanbase (all ages included) that would like to see it come back for an original movie or an entirely new run of episodes. Batman Beyond is just too good of a world to let go.

An Elseworlds Anthology


The folks over at Netflix have their own anthology series in the form of Black Mirror, and DC could very easily do the same by embracing its wealth of Elseworlds stories and forming an anthology series of its very own. The process of doing this would be relatively easy anyway. All they would have to do is adapt some of their coolest standalone storylines (such as Kingdom Come, Gotham By Gaslight, or Red Son) and release these individual episodes under the Elseworlds banner. After all, the odds of us ever seeing full-blown Elseworlds adaptations on the big screen seem reasonably slim at this point (Elseworlds are pretty niche, and often go full-geek), so why not bring them down to the small screen for faithful adaptations on the new DC streaming service?



The Creeper


Gotham City already has several heroes that people know and love, but there's one more obscure costumed character who could make a fantastic addition to the potential canon of heroes and villains on the DC streaming service. Specifically, I am referring to Jack Ryder a.k.a The Creeper. A former talk show host and journalist by trade, Ryder dons the psychotic (yet still heroic) mantle that starts off as an act, but eventually sees Ryder descend into madness over time. He has enhanced speed, strength, and agility due to exposure to an advanced serum, and he continuously stands out among the supporting members of Batman's cast for just how weird and bizarre he is. The character's presence was heavily hinted at in the recent Arkham games, but we have never had a proper live-action take on this hardcore DC deep cut.

Krypto The Superdog


Look, we already know that this list is pretty full of content that seems specifically geared towards older audiences. We also know that it is pretty full of content that seems geared explicitly towards exclusively human heroes. That's where Krypto the Superdog could come into the equation. A mainstay of the Superman lore for decades, Krypto tends to show up during the adventures that swerve into goofy territory, which would make it a perfect property to adapt as a more kid-friendly option on the DC streaming service. Whether animated or live-action, a brand new TV show focusing entirely on the adventures of Krypto seems like a pitch-perfect panacea for some of the doom and gloom that sometimes has a tendency to dominate the DC Comics stories.


100 Bullets


An adaptation of 100 Bullets would stand out from many of the other possible adaptations present on this list, because it would not involve digging into the main DC universe for source material. Instead, this would require the folks behind the DC streaming service to dive into the more alternative Vertigo line of comics and tell a more adult story full of blood, sex, and profanity. In practice, the 100 Bullets story isn't particularly complicated; the tale focuses on a man named Agent Graves who provides selected people with a gun, one hundred untraceable bullets, and a chance to murder someone who has wronged them at some point on their lives. A 100 Bullets movie almost happened with Tom Hardy a few years ago, but as of right now bringing the brand to streaming seems like the best way to keep it going.

American Vampire


Before comic writer Scott Snyder stepped into the world of Bruce Wayne in his Batman: The Court of Owls arc when The New 52 launched in 2011, he had an arguably even more interesting foray into the realm of bat-themed characters in the form of American Vampire. Endlessly brutal, gory, and generally nasty in nature, American Vampire tells the tale of Skinner Sweet -- an outlaw from the 1800s who turned into a vampire during a hanging gone wrong -- and his journey as an immortal being. The American Vampire books span centuries, which means there's no limit to the number of locations and characters that we can see in an adaptation of the material. Beyond that, it could provide DC with an answer to other fan-favorite, vampire-themed TV shows like HBO's True Blood and NBC's Midnight, Texas.



Suicide Squad


Last, but definitely not least, we come to a project that arguably seems tailor-made for television -- which is one of the reasons why it was so frustrating to see Arrow move away from it as a storytelling device. Task Force X has everything that a great DC action series would need: it has grounded and gritty violence, it has a wide range of eclectic characters who go on dangerous covert missions (making it great for serialized AND episodic storytelling), and its very existence is predicated on the idea that characters will die. This distinction is important because the odds of a movie like Suicide Squad killing major characters never seemed too likely. However, in a TV show with lesser-known actors in the roles, a show about Task Force X can embrace the rotating cast in a way the movies never could.